Youth Resouces

Pages

July 16-20th, funds willing and hell aside, I will be in Chicago for the Big Sex Workers Event. However….

funds willing and hell aside, July 8-11th, I want to be in Boston. Where Wheelock is holding another of their anti porn things. To protest…you know, with signs and everything. I’d like to NOT be alone. This is another of thier slide show training things…a slide show with images of porn performers used without the performers consent, which is not USDJ 2257 compliant, and which they are profiting from. This program now also gives college credit. These people, Dines, Jensen, et all, are profiting most effectively off of their anti-porn gimmicks, and are doing so off the backs of the porn performers they are using. They went to the AVN awards in Vegas and harassed various performers there, they will not let opposing view points participate in their forums, on their web sites, in their events, and further more, as they are not 2257 compliant, they are breaking a law they worked to have put into place. These people are heavily funded by everything from university circles to the government, and have a lot of sway….and frankly, at this point, are not only a serious road block to sex workers rights activists, but have the ear of various government officials and could in fact effect legislation which would, ahem, effect the 1st Amendment coverage of porn and other graphic or erotic art and entertainment.

Ernest Green (partner of Nina Hartley) has written about this over here….(in the comments), and I think he is right. The industry itself has lawyers. The people in it? Not so much. And the only way people like us are going to get heard on issues like this is to make some damn noise. And not just on blogs.

Now I pretty sure I am not the only one who hates Bob Jensen’s “I am a man speaking to men, yet over and for all women” attitude, or the aggressive tactics of Gail Dines….so….

Would love to support on this. I’d say that to maximize the ability of Desiree Alliance folks to be able to participate, we need to encourage everybody to support us in making conference logistics as simple as possible.

This means submitting your presentation proposals and paying for your registrations and booking your hotels asap!!! (Conference reg and hotel info will be available by next week!)

Having this all done in advance will mean that the final week leading up to the conference will be less hectic and we can consider traveling to Boston (finances permitting of course!)

Thanks for posting this here Ren, definitely worthy of our attention and I definitely would encourage all who are not involved with the DA conference logistics to get out to Boston if you can for this!

I said this in email to Ren, but I want to say it here again, publicly: This is a great idea!

Personally I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it to Boston, because the Wheelock thing is in the middle of the week and I would have to take time off work, and I’m already planning to take time off work to go to the DA conference (I’ll probably only be able to be there for about half the DA conference as it is). I need to check on my vacation days – I’ll do that tomorrow at work – but doing the math in my head, it doesn’t seem likely that I’ll have enough vacation time to do it. 😦

But I think people not being able to physically be in Boston shouldn’t be a limitation… maybe we can hold some kind of “blog-in” like for the Deni thing, in addition to in-person protests? What do y’all think?

Some more suggestions — right on w/ a blog-in — for those who can’t attend during the conference itself in Boston:

* Seek out allies in other Boston area colleges to see if they would like to hold an event on porn during this one, or who would like to hold an alternative event later in the year, that is inclusive of porn performers’ perspective

* Who is reviewing Dines’ work? Does she have to answer to an IRB? Let’s see who she has to be accountable to and talk to them. Her practice here around treating human subjects is part of what needs to be called into question.

* Connect with Boston area porn performers. There was once a THRIVING scene there — it’s where I got my start — but it seems to be somewhat fragmented. Any allies in the queer or alt.arts scenes? How can we connect to people locally?

I tried leaving a comment on the article about Dines and Jensen harrassing the women at the AVN show, but when I returned to the page, it disappeared. Here is what I wrote:
————————
Ms. Dines sees ejaculation on a woman’s face as a male expression of hatred and degradation, but I experience ejaculation on my face as a raw expression of two beautiful things together: My face, and the delicious result of my partner’s passion. I guess it all depends on one’s relationship with sex, eh?

After having the sexuality shamed, persecuted, stoned, and arrested out of us, is it any wonder that men are the majority consumers of porn? Men get no redirection for their natural sexual urges, while women are constantly reprimanded for their choices to be sexual.

It is a beautiful miracle that there is a revolution of women now demanding the right to not only access and consume sexuality in venues such as pornography, escorts, and strip clubs, but to be unapologetically sexual themselves.

This is my favorite part:
“At the booth, Abbywinters.com “girls”… were chatting amiably with the fans (even playing chess with some of them, to show that the girls are smart as well as sexy)[.]”

The statement is dripping with derision, and her disdain for the actresses is so blatant it hurts. Fine irony, wouldn’t you say?

Excellent point you make, Iamcuriousblue. The answer to that is that those who would question their rhetoric and discourse are not welcome at their events. Remember the anti-porn event at Wheelock.

————————

Here is what Iamcuriousblue wrote to which I commented:

————————
Iamcuriousblue: How about if the roles were reversed?
“Gail Dines, a sociology professor at Wheelock College in Boston,…Robert Jensen, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin….”

OK, let’s try out this scenario for size. How about we have a well-known sex-positive/pro-porn/sex-worker-rights activist show up one day in the classroom of Gail Dines or Robert Jensen (ie, one of *their* workplaces) and start giving them the third-degree about the rather unsavory political connections (with the religious and cultural right) of the feminist anti-porn and prostitution abolitionist movement. I bet neither of them would dig that very much and would be pretty quick to call security.

Another cross post. I am sort of ignorant on the correct way to do it and what catagory to post it in. I just thought everyone would want to see what a beautiful job Annie O. does in handling the hostile interviewer.

If they’re having a conference about feminist responses to pornography, then why not address feminist pornography? Is anybody familiar with this genre of pornography? It is produced by women and focuses on women’s sexual pleasure and sex positivity toward women’s sexuality. That is, treating women’s sexuality like something beautiful that we can take pride in rather than something dirty or shameful. I’m very interested in what people think about this. Here is a link to more information: http://www.feministpornography.com

And if it really *is* about “feminist responses to pornography,” then that should include *all* feminist responses. Otherwise they should specify that it’s “anti-porn feminist responses to pornography.” (Maybe they are using this language; I admit I’m too lazy to look at the moment. But if they’re not, they need to be prepared to deal with the fact that the “feminist response to pornography” is not monolithic.)

The audio isn’t working on my computer so I wasn’t able to listen to the interview with Annie Oakley on YouTube (intially on the “O’Reilly Factor”). However, I have watched the O’Reilly Factor before and Bill O’Reilly tends to be conservative. I remember an interview he did with John Stossel of “20/20” and when Stossel said he supported legal prostitution, O’Reilly conflated prostitution with drug addiction. I’m not against drug users, but I am against overgeneralizations and prejudices toward sex workers.
Thus, I wouldn’t be amazed if the woman who replaced him acted like an “ass” toward Annie. After all, this was Fox News and the O’Reilly Factor.